My recent experience rebuilding the most recent micro-diorama as an 009 scene, made me realise that these scenes work much better with a little implied backstory rather than just basic scenery. I perhaps should have known this from my past builds but sometimes these little nuances are forgotten with the passage of time. Let's have a look at the development process.....
Beach Halt (2004)
Built during the phase where I was reconsidering O9 and possibly not going much further towards a layout with it, this scene had a station platform at the rear, station fencing (later reused on Shifting Sands), several Prieser figures and Silfor grass mat. Built on 5mm foamcore it occupied a full shelf length but after several months on display it highlighted that foamcore might not be stable enough unsupported and that the shelves in the cabinet might not quite be level or even.
The locomotive was my broken Bachmann 2-6-2 conversion and the coaches my early 'Routemaster' builds.
The Photographer (2004)
Perhaps the real pioneering micro-diorama, this scene was based upon a length of N gauge track that had been stuck to balsa wood and buried as an experiment and then subjected to my early hanging basket liner grass trials. Again, I was considering O9 as being just a series of static models at the time and my pioneering blue diesel and a grounded coach featured.
I must have considered this a "premium" scene over Beach Halt, it featured a surround from 1mm plywood and my two "best" figures, who still feature on The Headshunt and Shifting Sands. This scene must have been stripped down after a while as the fence and oil drums etc went on to the next project later that year.
Back of the Sheds (2004)
Developed as a partner to Beach Halt this was another full-shelf design on 5mm foamcore. It was never completed as the instability of the material was becoming apparent. The shed building was converted from a much rebuilt structure based loosely on Sand Hutton Central station which I had started years ago for an O-16.5 layout .
The gate was a Slaters product once used on another project and a length of fencing had been recycled from the Photographer scene. A length of walling completed the background and the idea was to display the blue diesel and an open coach in the scene, representing a line extending beyond the back of the sheds and suitably full of junk, including a dismantled set of coach seats.
The wall went on to feature in the next scene and the fence was eventually reused on Shifting Sands alongside the ice cream parlour.
The Wall (2005)
After the shortcomings of the longer scenes had been identified I reconstructed the base of the photographer scene, adding the wall intended for Back of the Shed and the various oil drums and pallets that were lying around. The first appearance of what has almost become a trademark can also be seen, the pile of track panels! Eventually even the 'Beach Halt' sign ended up here. This scene was used quite a lot for photography at this time, but really lacked the required foreground depth.
With Shifting Sands now my primary focus and the idea of static scenes out of favour, I was persuaded to sell this scene to a friend who appreciates it to this day.
Beach Road (2006)
This scene was created for the new owner of The Wall and was based on my treatment of the dunes on Shifting Sands, which it largely followed in it's build method of fine casting sand and Silfor grass tufts.
Building this scene provided the impetus to add gorse bushes and stake fencing onto Shifting Sands itself. One day I'll build a version for myself...
There then followed a period where the Microrama seemingly went out of favour, whilst I built a OO gauge box file layout, a Gn15 display base on a CD and a layout in a chocolate box...
Skegness (2014)
This was not started as a Microrama but as a deeper scene that was cut down during construction when a few pitfalls became apparent. The Skegness reference comes from both it's initial form, where a building was inspired by the long-closed Skegness miniature railway, and the revised form, where the platform surface was based on the same theme. A "Skegness is so bracing" poster was incorporated as a nod to the inspiration.
I really liked this scene but something about it never quite gelled, I think it was a combination of the longer length and the height of the base, which was 3mm cork over 5mm foam core. It was sold to join The Wall and Beach Road and I reconsidered my approach to the idea.
What came of the reconsideration was a larger diorama The Headshunt, designed with photography in mind rather than display. With that successfully completed thoughts eventually returned to the Microramas...
The Path to... (2016)
What if... I thought to myself, there was a background scene behind the micro-diorama to add some depth...? The original version of this scene therefore incorporated a backdrop of beach huts taken at Chapel St Leonards, held in the cabinet with blu-tac. The real pioneering change however was the use of 6mm MDF as the base, coated all round with emulsion paint to resist moisture ingress and warping.
As with the most recent scene, I realised that something was not quite right and made a few changes to refine it, adding fencing and signs, and plenty of blown sand to give a real seaside feel. The original blue diesel still features, and although not seen here, in the revised version is joined by one of my early figures recreating a pose that I had used in a very early picture of my O9 work.
Read more about building and reworking The Path to....
Stuck in a Siding (2016)
This scene was always intended to be a bit different, it was partially intended as a test piece for new techniques as well as being a display piece inspired by the 'Abandoned Miniatures' page on Facebook. Of all the micro-dioramas this had the biggest sense of place, the sunken track, the scattered junk and tatty carriage all creating the image of a tucked away corner of a 15" gauge railway (much as the Back of the Shed had intended to 10 years before!)
This was perhaps the real game-changer and the success of the scenic treatments led to the reworking of both The Path to..., The Headshunt and a scene to stand a 1/24th scale Lister on.
Read more about building Stuck in a Siding.
I had at this stage thought that the 140 x 70mm size of Stuck in a Siding would become my new "standard" size and whilst the new 009 scene is that size, there is one other project to consider that broke all the rules...
The Beck (2019)
In between the initial cat food box experiment and the completed version of Beck Bridge there existed a micro-diorama version designed to go in the display cabinet. This broke the 140mm length rule by quite a margin. I was never quite sure whether adding the extra height would be a good idea and I think in the end it was just too much in the space, especially as the bridge looked too low.
I even experimented with a lower height version, taking 10mm off the height and reducing the waterway to a culvert, having shortened the base very slightly to match the length of The Path to... for consistency, but still breaking the 140mm "standard"!
Although it did get a little further scenically it was recently abandoned for various reasons and the 3mm MDF base stripped back and cleaned up, saved along with the track for another project in due course....
Colin
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